Offbeat Oregon History - Filming of 'Worst Western ever' was an unforgettable spectacle in Oregon

If you've never heard "Harold Hecht's 'The Way West'" referenced as a legendary box-office bomb, that's probably because of Michael Cimino.

Cimino's epic testament to directorship run amok, a baroque five-and-a-half-hour Western picture titled "Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate," was probably the most colossal box-office bomb of all time. Nothing else has ever come close - not even "Ishtar." It earned only 8 percent of its $44 million budget back (equivalent to $132 million today). It lost so much money it drove its studio, United Artists, out of business.